The present invention relates in general to the field of garden tools. More particularly, the present invention relates to a powered garden tool to facilitate digging holes in soil, such as a garden or planting bed.
The prior art is replete with garden tools and similar devices for digging holes in soil for setting bedding plants, bulbs and the like. The most common garden tool for digging small holes is the simple hand shovel or gardening trowel. There are significant drawbacks to the hand shovel/gardening spade. For example, it can be difficult to remove soil from the bottom of the digging hole with such a tool. Moreover, when the soil is densely packed, penetrating the soil can be laborious, requiring an excessive amount of strength and endurance. In addition, the resulting holes usually are poorly shaped and require the removal of more soil than necessary in order to set the bedding plant or bulb. An example of a typical garden trowel is illustrated by Design U.S. Pat. No. D292,865 to Scott, issued Nov. 24, 1987. More elaborate garden tools have been developed having serrated edges and/or curved ends in order to facilitate penetrating the soil, as illustrated by Design U.S. Pat. No. D352,873 to Chen, issued Nov. 29, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,648 to Sheehan et al., issued Jun. 16, 1998. However, the use of such garden trowels oftentimes requires excessive strength and energy, and still result in poorly formed holes.
Another type of garden tool which has been utilized for digging holes is the garden claw, characterized as having several soil-contacting fingers or prongs. Although the garden claw does facilitate penetrating the soil to some extent, it is difficult to establish a properly formed hole when using a garden claw. In addition, it is quite difficult to remove soil from the hole and the use of the garden claw requires strength and energy. Examples of modified garden claws are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,538 to Druskin et al., issued Jul. 29, 1980 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,283 to Mackay, issued Mar. 30, 1999.
Another type of tool used for digging in soil is the bladed garden tool. The incorporation of one or more blades facilitates the penetration of densely packed soil. Nonetheless, a good amount of strength must be used with the bladed tool, and the user can expend a great deal of energy in digging multiple holes. Moreover, such tools do not provide that the soil will be removed easily from the hole nor are the resulting holes necessarily guaranteed to be formed any better than with the common garden trowel. Examples of bladed garden tools include U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,344 to Larson et al., issued Apr. 18, 2000 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,702 to Petruzzelli, issued Jun. 13, 2000.
Despite the numerous garden tools shown in the prior art and commercially available, a need still exists for a garden tool that will facilitate digging holes in soil, including soil that is difficult to penetrate. Such a garden tool should enable the user to plant a reasonably large quantity of bedding plants without regard to the user""s strength and should require minimal effort and energy. Such a garden tool also should facilitate the formation of properly shaped holes. Moreover, such a tool should be capable of removing soil from the hole. In addition, such a garden tool should be of simple construction and inexpensive to manufacture, lightweight and easy to use.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool having at least two cutting blade members which facilitates the digging of a hole in soil.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool having a plurality of cutting blades which facilitates the digging of a hole in soil and which removes soil from the hole.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool having more than one type of cutting blade members, such that said more than one type of cutting blade members can be interchanged with one another to accommodate different soil types.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool attachment which can be detachably secured to a hand-held power tool.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool which enables a user to plant a reasonably large quantity of bedding plants without regard to the user""s strength and which requires the user to expend minimal effort and energy.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool that reduces user fatigue and reduces the time required to complete a planting.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a powered garden tool which is of simple construction and inexpensive to manufacture, light-weight and easy to use.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part of the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following specification or may be learned by practice of the invention.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a powered garden tool having a handle member, a power unit disposed within said handle member, an elongated shaft having a first end rotatably and detachably securable to said handle member and a distal second end, and at least two cutting blade members secured to said second end of said first elongated shaft.